Microsoft patents ‘Silent Voice Input’ for smart devices

Close-up Of A Businessman Using Voice Assistant On Mobile Phone

One of the most significant issues users have with voice assistants is not their technical limitations, but rather the social implications of speaking out loud to a device in public. In quiet environments, users are afraid to bother surrounding people, and in all types of environments – even in homes, as Microsoft claims – users are afraid of diffusing their private information. To reduce these fears, Microsoft patented an idea for an ingressive whisper understanding technology. 

This proposed invention provides a quieter method of using voice input technology that aims to protect private information. In short, users would place a device equipped with the voice input feature very close to their mouths (in some cases, just 1mm away) so that a small gap is created between the apparatus and the lips. Once in place, the microphone could theoretically "capture [a] stable utterance signal with a very small voice leakage".